The US Powerball was already a staggering US$435-million after 19 straight roll-overs. Then a late surge in ticket sales pushed the jackpot up to US$447.8-million, making it the seventh largest US Powerball jackpot in the history of the game and the 10th largest in US lottery history.
The lucky winning lottery numbers on the night were 20 26 32 38 58 and the Powerball of 3. The lucky ticket was purchased in California and whoever owns it must be feeling very good right about now.
A spokesperson for the Powerball lottery confirmed the estimated jackpot prizes. The full amount of close to US$450-million is only available if the jackpot winner chooses to recieve their payments over 29 years using the annuity option. Taking the cash prize for last Saturday's US Jackpot win would pay out just over US$279-million.
Those are the figures before Federal taxes, which could take a bite of almost $70-million from the lump sum, or even more than that (over time) from the annuity. The lucky player now has up to one year in which to claim their prize, though if they do want to rush in to the lottery offices to claim it as soon as possible, they still have to wait until 8 on Monday morning (California time).
If they can contain their excitement, the sensible thing may be to take their time and get a good team of advisers behind them before making their claim. California is not one of the states that allows you to remain anonymous when you win the lottery jackpot, so whoever they are, they are going to find themselves in the spotlight once they do come forward.
While this most recent jackpot was quite a bit lower than the record US$1.6-billion that caused so much excitement back in January 2016, that prize was split three ways, so no one person got to walk away with over a billion dollars. If Saturday's winner doesn't have to share their prize, then even after taxes they will walk away with US$200-million if they take the lump sum option, and with their life changed forever.
Until the Powerball jackpot rolls over again it is now back to a 'mere' US$40-million. If that's not exciting enough for you, however, don't worry. With all this attention on the Powerball, the US Mega Million lottery this Tuesday has quietly rolled over to a respectable jackpot of US$101-million.
